The new Lantana cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Mitch Donahue, a citizen of the United States. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Lantana varieties for ornamental commercial applications. The cross resulting in this new variety was made during August 2010 at a commercial nursery in Indian Trail, N.C.
The new variety is the result of an open pollination, the seed parent is the unpatented variety Lantana camara ‘Megan's Gold’, and the pollen parent is unknown. The new variety was discovered in May 2011 by the inventor in a trial field of seedlings resulting from the 2010 crossing, at the commercial nursery in Indian Trail, N.C.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘ELESHINE’ by vegetative cuttings was first performed at a commercial greenhouse in Indian Trail, N.C. in May 2011. Subsequently, at least two generations have been produced, and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.